Pretty amazing. I wonder what the endurance is.
The video shows both a one-seat and a two-seat model. The manufacturer’s web site claims 25 minutes endurance with a 1 hour recharging time for the one-seat model. Nothing is mentioned about the two-seat model.
There are so many initiatives being floated nowadays, hard to keep track.
Now if this one would become serious, I’d be their first client. At least they are realist enough to mention a hybrid option (all-electric version way into the future).
Awesome visibility and tilt-rotor technology well proven.
Concerning endurance claims of all these concepts it would be nice to know how they calculate it:
Which SOC range are they using 0-100%, 10-90% …?
Is it calculated with new batteries ? As we all know battery capacity degrades over time …
Is it calculated with any security/redundancy in mind ? You would at least need to have redundant power supplies. Taking this into account this would cut significantly into the real usefull endurance.
Dufour reads suspiciously like daydreaming. “For everyone” – there were no road traffic problems until cars became affordable.
How much energy will be needed compared to a car? What will be the wind limits? Perhaps so much energy will be removed from the atmosphere by windmills that it will become calm, so flying close to mountain ridges will have no problems.
A “helicopter” needs far more energy than something that rolls along a road.
I agree – practical use is a very long way in the future, if ever…
Unfortunately I have seen a number of “future technology” projects and it is impossible to distinguish between
Hi All, quite an interesting thread and forum, I have read through most but please forgive me if I repeat previous working.
It sounds like there is still some contention about the value of Electric Propulsion and Hybrid Electric Propulsion for aircraft. I think by now it is clear there is significant value, but in many cases the arguments are confused by incorrect focus or assumptions about the type and mission context. There has been extraordinary development in EP and HEP for aircraft in the past 20 years, and it is advancing at an amazing rate. It is the biggest game in town for aircraft development in general these days.Of course there are going to be limits and blind alleys, but so much potential.
I want to mention one example where the type and mission show extreme advantage. There are ways to extrapolate, with care, and we see this occurring too. The small VTOL drone, irrespective of all the other operational issues is a great example of the utility of EP. These aircraft would not exist without EP, sure you can do it with Internal Combustion Engines, but the performance in control and response is much worse, and the market would never have developed due to the mess etc. Still with this example, the range and endurance is very poor compared to ICE standards. Typically the things have 1/2 hour endurance on battery, but recently several commercially available HEP systems have been developed which increase the endurance to around 3 hours. The HEP VTOL drone works where other solutions do not.
As for larger types, and the sort of missions you may be interested in now, I would say be prepared. There are going to be changes.
Here’s another one. Not hybrid though. But since in this case money is of no concern whatsoever maybe there is some super secret battery technology behind it 
https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/13/cora-autonomous-electric-kitty-hawk-new-zealand/
One way to find out. actually, maybe two ways;
